DAIRYING IN TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1921, Page 7

DAIRYING IN TARANAKI.

A MAGNIFICENT PROVINCE

PROSPEROUS FARMERS.

(Auckland Herald Special Commissioner.)

Sometime during the early part of the great war I went down to Taranaki and Northern Wellington with the idea of inquiring how it was possible for men who were paying £6O and £7O an acre for land to make money out of dairying, with butter-fat at a little over a shilling per pound. 1 visited a number of farms which were notable as being the highest-priced in their particular district, and in each case 1 found that the highest-priced farms were the most prosperous, and I should add, too, the most interesting and attractive. They were prosperous because in nearly every case good dairying stock were kept, and good grass and good feed provided. During the last few weeks 1 have visited some of the same districts in Taranaki and .Wellington and have seen farms which have been bought and sold at over £lOO per acre, and in most cases the owners were quite satisfied with their prospects, providing that butter and cheese do not slump in values like wool and mutton. The owners have their ideas of success on the high butter-fat production of their cows, the quality of their pastures, and the capacity of their land to raise supplementary crops. Under these conditions 1 see no reason whatever why any of these men, providing that they are not over-burdened with financial disabilities, should not carry on easily, though, of course, they can expect little or nothing in the shape of profit from the increased value of their holdings. It is a common, belief in some parts of the Dominion that all the farmers in Taranaki have been through the fever of land speculation; that all of them are working high-priced land, and that most of them are burdened with mortgages. As a matter of fact if one goes carefully into the matter it will be found that averagely little more than 10 or 15 per cent, of the farms in Taranaki changed hands during the past few years of extraordinary prices; that a large proportion of the farms are still held by people who made them or purchased them while land values were low; and that the actual percentage of farmers likely to be squeezed out of their holdings by the pressure of mortgages is very small. HIGH-PRICED LAND AND COWS.

It is easy enough to understand why men in Taranaki and Northern Wellington districts are willing to pay a high price for dairy farms. Dairying is a highly-organised industry there; the high priced farms are usually small in area, and well equipped with buildings and plant; and it can be taken as a fact that in nearly every case the price of land includes buildings and improvements, so that on a 50-acre farm the value of improvements may commonly run from £2O to even £4O per acre. Besides this nearly all the highpriced farms are situated adjacent to excellent tar-sealed roads, and within reasonable distance of pleasant, prosperous, and remarkably up-to-date towns. These advantages, together with the favorable climate, the natural beauty of the countryside, and the remarkable luxuriance of the pastures which supply the cheapest and best feed for dairy herds, all form strong inducements for men to pay big prices for good farms.

The main point, however, is that the very high prices so often quoted and so much discussed are by no means common. One has only to examine the books of well-known land agents, or to study the advertising columns of the local papers, to find that there are any amount of farms for sale in good localities at £5O, £<H), and £7O an acre.

Land values have gone up in Taranaki since my last visit there, but they have not gone up in the same proportion as the value of good dairy cows. I remember talking to a well-known breeder of stock some time ago who told me that although he could get 100 guineas for a yearling Jersey bull he could not get what he considered a fair price for the same class of heifer, and that it paid him much better to turn his heifers into the milking herd than to sell them. To-day it is not uncommon for dairy farmers to pay from £lOO to £l7O for pedigree heifers with a milking record behind them. It sounds big to talk of £lOO cows on £lOO an acre land, but evidently it is, considered sound business, because these prices are given by the most practical and successful men; and when cows yield over 5001 b of butter-fat per season at 2s per lb, and give a calf worth 40 or 50 guineas at the end of the year, one can see where the profits come in. PRODUCTIVE DISTRICTS. I found, in spite of the prevailing financial stringency, a feeling of confidence among Taranaki farmers. Most of the men I met realised that good cows and a plentiful supply of grass and supplementary crops would enable them to meet even a drop in butter an.l cheese without any serious consequen-

ces. Increases in the cost of production, due to higher wages, have been met to some extent by greater economies due to more efficient management, to the elimination of waste, and to the manufacture of by-products from skim-milk and whey. There has been a good deal of talk about the change from sheep to dairying, but there has been no marked change in Taranaki. The land suitable for dairying has been devoted to the cow for a long while; and very little land in Taranaki or North Wellington capable of dairying under present, conditions is under sheep. The great extent of flat land about Marton, which looks so attractive is not so well adapted for pasturage as for cropping, and is tending more each year to cereals and seeds. T t has the drawback of restricted water supply. It is difficult to obtain water from wells there, and though there are several rivers meandering across the plains there are few small streams. Sheep-farming is common from Marton northwards to beyond Wanganui, and then dairying country comes in and spreads all round the base of Mount Egmont, which, being the source of innumerable streams, an abundant rainfall, and rich warm soils, may be said to be the guardian of the golden cow. If the people of Taranaki were pagans their unrivalled mountains would be deified as the benefiicent power which gives them so many blessings, for it certainly has created one of the finest, if not the finest, dairying districts in the world. If anyone has any doubts as to the advantages of

dairying over sheep-farming, a visit to Taranaki should convert them. In what other part of New Zealand, or for that matter in what other could one find so many prosperous people, such

thriving well-equipped towns, such evidences of man’s successful utilisation of the land?

I saw something of the country from New Plymouth down the western railway system to Levin, and from Marton through Palmerston North into Hawke’s Bay. I never saw it looking better. The mild winter and the mild spring had dealt kindly with flocks and herds. There was a record lambing and a record calving season. This splendid tract of country needs no advertisement, and its people have no cause for pessimism unless they have unwisely over-speculated. It is well settled, well farmed, and steadily increasing to enormous output of wealth. If land has gone up in value it is because the land has proved its capacity for producing values. If its people exercise their wellknown skill and energy, and practice, moderate economy, they can come through almost any financial crisis successfully. If the price of dairy products keeps up to anticipated values, and mutton and wool return to a prewar basis, these districts must be highly prosperous.